token

In computer science, a token is a sequence of characters that represents a single, meaningful unit in a program or data stream. It’s like a word in a sentence, but for computers. Tokens are the building blocks that compilers, interpreters, and other language processors use to understand and process code or data. Examples of tokens include keywords (like ‘if’, ‘else’, ‘while’), identifiers (variable names), operators (+, -, *), literals (numbers, strings), and punctuation marks. The process of breaking down a stream of characters into tokens is called tokenization or lexical analysis. This is usually the first step in understanding and processing a programming language or data format. Think of it as separating a sentence into individual words and punctuation marks before analyzing its meaning.